The katha of the poor brahmin
In a village a poor brahmin lived with his wife. On Bhadrapad Krishna Tritiya the wife kept the Kajari Teej vrat and said to her husband, 'Today is my Teej vrat; please bring gram sattu for the puja.'
The brahmin had no money. So that his wife's vrat would not stay incomplete, he went into a moneylender's shop at night, weighed out a kilo and a quarter of gram dal, ghee and sugar and began making sattu. Hearing the noise, the servants woke up and caught him.
Before the moneylender the brahmin told the whole truth: 'I am not a thief. My wife is keeping the Teej vrat and I had no money to buy sattu.'
The moneylender searched him and found nothing but sattu. His heart melted. He said, 'From today your wife is my sister in dharma.' He gave the brahmin sattu, jewellery, money and mehendi and sent him off with honour.
From that day the brahmin's fortunes turned. At the end of the katha it is said — 'Just as Kajari Mata heard the brahmin woman, may she hear everyone.'
The puja tradition
In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh it is called Satudi Teej. Women fast all day, worship Neemdi Mata (a neem branch) in the evening, offer sattu as bhog, and when the moon rises offer arghya and break the vrat by eating sattu. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Kajari folk songs are sung at this time.
This is OmKiran Bhakti's retelling of the traditional katha in simple English; details of the katha vary slightly from region to region.